Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies最新文献

Consumers are interested in sustainable and safe food with positive sensory attributes, either minimally processed or incorporating sustainable processes. However, the introduction of new food technologies may generate concern among consumers. This study aims to identify ways to decrease consumers' risk perception of new technologies: High pressure, Non-thermal Plasma, Pulsed Electric Field, and Ultrasound. This cross-cultural study was conducted in three contrasting countries: Portugal, Germany, and the United Kingdom, recruiting over 400 consumers per country. The survey presented twelve constructs based on the Ecological Framework, which was used to predict perceived risk. Factors affecting such perception varied both for technologies and countries, as shown by a multiple regression model. Food technology neophobia, perceived relative severity, and trust were common factors across all countries. This study demonstrates that developing and producing new products using non-thermal technologies should consider the country's consumers' risk perception factors.

Wheat's sub-aleurone is rich in gluten but mainly ends up in the miller's bran fraction during milling. Here, the goal was to investigate dry processing to fractionate miller's bran into a functional fraction enriched in sub-aleurone gluten proteins and hence gain fundamental insight into the behaviour of miller's bran and sub-aleurone during dry processing. Impact milling and sieving of miller's bran yielded a sub-aleurone-enriched fraction (27.4% mass yield, 22.4% protein, 63.2% starch) and starchy endosperm-poor fraction enriched in dietary fibre (62.6% mass yield; 27.4% arabinoxylan). The ash and phytate contents of the sub-aleurone-enriched fraction are higher than those of the corresponding flour because of (limited) aleurone cell opening during the impact milling. Subsequent pin disc milling, and air classification of the sub-aleurone-enriched fraction resulted in a sub-aleurone gluten-enriched fraction. This fraction had a protein content of 31.4%, an absolute gluten content of 24.5% and lower arabinoxylan content per unit protein than flour.

Industrial relevance

The production of a sub-aleurone-enriched fraction through impact milling and sieving of miller's bran presents an opportunity to increase the flour yield in industrial mills. Additionally, the sub-aleurone gluten-enriched fraction offers a promising alternative to commercial gluten. Nowadays, commercial gluten is manufactured through energy-intensive wet processing methods. Furthermore, also the starchy endosperm-poor fraction could serve as an ingredient enriched in dietary fibre. In conclusion, this study contributes to increasing resource efficiency in the wheat manufacturing industry by repurposing a by-product of wheat milling.

With the changing lifestyles and the rapid development of the prepared food industry, there are many different multi-component rice-based foods on the market today. Further, manufacturers of multi-component foods prepare different types of rice products and provide them to markets and restaurants. In this study, the multi-component rice was heated by a self-built small 50 Ω, 13.56 MHz radio frequency (RF) heating system to explore the effective scheme for improving heating uniformity. The dielectric properties (DPs) of the single-component material (cooked rice, carrot, and sausage) were first measured and the heating rates were recorded at a selected input power level of 500 W and electrode gap of 80 mm. Based on the above results and the occurrence of edge effect, three types (I, II, and III) of the multi-component test samples were designed to compare the heating performances and the quality changes after RF treatment with three different electrode gaps (70, 80, and 90 mm). Results demonstrated that the Type-I sample arrangement resulted in a relatively shorter treatment time and a lower heating uniformity index as compared to the other two sample arrangements (Types of II and III). It also resulted in a more uniform temperature distribution and better-quality retention than that was possible with the single-component treatment. Thus, the layered scheme (Type-I) based on the DPs of the material could effectively improve the RF heating uniformity of multi-component food.

Electrostatic separation technology had been applied for the first time to the separation of algal proteins. The results indicated that grinding to a subcellular scale (<20 μm) effectively achieved the physical dispersion of Enteromorpha prolifera (E. prolifera) protein nuclei from other matrices. Compared to E. prolifera polysaccharides, proteins exhibited superior tribocharging properties, allowing them to acquire more positive charges during friction with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) tubes. The electrostatic separation of E. prolifera ultrafine powder was optimized by adjusting the friction tube length and airflow velocity. It was found that with a friction tube length of 200 cm, an airflow velocity of 5 m/s, and an electric field strength of 1.2 kV/cm, the content of obtained protein increased from 4.29 ± 0.19% to 9.38 ± 0.44%, with a separation efficiency of 67.67 ± 3.14%. These findings suggest the potential application of electrostatic separation technology for the green enrichment of algal proteins.

Various combinations of high hydrostatic pressure treatment (HHPT, 0.1 or 600 MPa), calcium addition (0, 0.50, or 0.75 mmol CaCl₂/g protein), and protein content ([Prot.], 1, 5, or 10 g/L) were applied to soybean protein isolate (SPI) dispersions to analyze their effects on the formation and stability of foams. The significant interactions between these factors led to several combinations that improved foam stability via different mechanisms that involved different solubilities, aggregate sizes, and molecular structures of proteins. Thirty min after foam formation, calcium combined with HHPT improved volume of foam (VF₃₀) and volume of liquid retained (VLr₃₀), by the formation of strong interfacial films owing to the increased cross-linking ability of soluble and intermediate-sized aggregates. Calcium without HHPT had a greater effect on VLr₃₀ than on VF₃₀, which could be owing to the insoluble and large aggregates that blocked Plateau borders. HHPT without calcium led to small denatured aggregates that were soluble and improved the VLr₃₀ when [Prot.] was lower.

Industrial relevance

Calcium enriched plant proteins with good techno-functional properties is a prevailing need, considering the current cultural, economic and environmental changes that occur. The findings of this study could serve as an input for the incorporation of high biological value proteins and calcium into aerated foods, and would contribute to develop innovative products. Treatment with high hydrostatic pressure could be advantageous on account of modifying the protein structure and thereby improving the stability of the foams. Under certain conditions, such as those of aerosol whipping creams, high hydrostatic pressure would simultaneously improve techno-functional properties of proteins and pasteurize the dispersions, which would then have to be safely canned.

Considering the high perishable nature of muscle foods (fish, poultry and red meat) and wide diversity in spoilage microorganisms responsible for spoilage, the prevalence of pathogenic microorganisms in muscle food spoilage is significant. There has been extensive coverage on the emergence of antibiotic resistance in food spoilage microbes in recent years. Chemical preservatives have been extensively employed for the preservation of muscle foods although they have been found to cause toxicity and are not environmentally sustainable. Nevertheless, the scientific community has shown a growing interest in recent breakthroughs in the utilization of innovative clean-label technologies for the preservation of muscle meals, owing to their sustainable characteristics. Among them pulsed light, electrolysed water and ozonation have been under wide exploration. The evaluated sustainable technologies have been found to effectively inhibit the microbial spoilage and reduce the development of antimicrobial resistance. This review discusses potentiality of sustainable technologies in preserving muscle foods with minimal deteriorative impact.

Sensory evaluation is an important aspect of food quality and control. However, even when carried out by a group of experts, it is generally difficult to link the results of a sensory evaluation to physico-chemical or technological measurements. This study is based on the premise that formalising the interpretation of sensory observations in terms of the physical state of the product can help to link together sensory and physical properties. The main proposal of this paper is a methodological framework adapted from a diagnostic approach to capture the relationships between sensory evaluations of a type of product, here wheat dough, and its physical states called quality profiles. A probabilistic analysis is proposed to identify the quality profiles and their signatures, i.e. the corresponding sensory observations that result from grouping the probabilities of the observations. This work is supported by the analysis of a large historical sensory evaluation dataset from the routine application of the French baking standard to estimate the baking value of common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) flour. Application of the method to this dataset revealed two defective quality profiles for wheat dough, Slackening (due to weakness of the gluten network) and Resistant (excessive strength of the gluten network), along with their signatures in terms of sensory observations of the dough. Promising relationships were found between the quality profiles attributed to the wheat samples and usual technological criteria of the wheat flour quality: gluten index, (Ie) elasticity index and (W) dough strength. This methodological framework applied to food opens up interesting perspectives for the use of sensory data for crop and food quality assessment using computational approaches.

Mannosylerythritol lipid-A (MEL-A) is one of natural glycolipid biosurfactants with extensive applications into food and cosmetics field. This study focused on the effect of MEL-A on physicochemical properties of myofibrillar protein (MP) from chicken and explained the underlying mechanism between biosurfactant-protein interaction from molecular level. Specifically, the mixed MP-MEL-A emulsions were prepared and characterized by rheological properties, protein structure alternations and emulsifying and foaming properties. The study showed that the addition of MEL-A promoted the formation of smaller droplet size, resulting from the electrostatic interaction and hydrophobic interaction inside the emulsion. Further investigations of SEM and SDS-PAGE indicated the protein aggregation phenomenon induced by MEL-A. With the increase of MEL-A content, the apparent viscosity, elasticity and sulfhydryl content increased significantly. Moreover, the decrease of α-helix and the increase of β-sheet in protein secondary structure proved that MEL-A leaded to the formation of protein network for instance in gel. Besides, the addition of MEL-A also enhanced the emulsifying and foaming properties of emulsions, 1.5% of which seems to be the best choice. These results implied the great potential of MEL-A applied into meat gel product industry.

Tomato leaves, the main by-product from tomato production, are a potential protein source. In this study, proteins were extracted from tomato leaves collected from different positions of the plant (top, middle and bottom) using three different purification methods: acid precipitation, ethanol precipitation and dialysis. The protein extraction process was evaluated in terms of protein yield and purity. In addition, mass balances were established to estimate the potential additional protein recovery as well as to identify the limiting factors of the extraction. Significant protein loss (0.62 g/g total proteins) occurred during the initial processing steps, which was mainly attributed to the water absorbed by the fibrous pulp and the presence of large quantities of insoluble proteins. Part of the loss may be recovered from the pulp and thus considered attainable. However, most of these proteins were inevitably lost, due to their insolubility. In general, low protein yields were found for all leaves when aiming for a protein extract with high purity, with some variations in different leaves. Top (young) leaves resulted in the highest protein yield, suggesting the presence of more intact proteins. Acid precipitation resulted in the highest protein purity, suggesting a high selectivity for proteins.

Freeze-drying is a drying process that can result in long-term and cost-effective storage of food products. In the case of domestic applications, a compact freeze-dryer may lead to the production of added-value products in households and small farms. For this reason, this study aimed to determine the design of R290 refrigeration system together with air distribution system components in a one-chamber microwave-heated freeze-dryer prototype. The device is capable of drying both fresh and frozen food products. The freezing time of food products was experimentally analysed concerning various evaporator configurations to fulfill the final device design's compactness and high food load. The study showed that an internal evaporator located at the bottom of the freeze-dryer chamber outperformed the external heat exchangers with mini- and micro-channels. The freezing process was optimised based on the CFD model of airflow distribution in the microwave-heated chamber with a stationary multi-shelf system by proposing the shape and location of air guides and radial fans. The results showed that the solution involving air guides positioned at the ends of the shelves at a 60-degree angle provides uniform air distribution. The combination of experimental and numerical approaches resulted in a complete design of a prototype freeze-dryer chamber in which, according to the calculations performed, the freezing time of food products was 40% faster compared to the reference device.